Instructional Strategies
Instructional strategies include classroom collaboration on a moss terrarium. Hands on experience dissecting moss and making cyanotype prints will also help students understand the biology and aesthetic possibilities of moss. Students will articulate their reflections on moss in text within artist commonplace books and will have guidance on composition arranging words and images within them. Three common moss specimen cards from the archives of the Yale Peabody Museum will be printed for students to look at. Students will look at the specimen cards for the mosses Polytrichum commune, Hypnum and Leucobryum glaucum that have be found in New Haven before going on a field trip. A discussion about the expectations of collecting specimens that will set the stage for students to take polaroid photographs of mosses on a field trip. Students will be introduced before the fieldtrip to the ethics of collecting specimens in this case with images without destroying the natural environment.
The game of Chess can serve as a metaphor for the process of evolution as described by Darwin. 7th grade students I taught art to last year learned how to play chess during lunch and the last week of school in art class. I can use chess as a metaphor for survival of organisms in adverse conditions using strategies like moss does to survive climate conditions. For example chess pieces can adapt defensively to check of a King by interposing (getting in the way of attack), fleeing or capturing an attacking piece. All chess pieces are assigned numerical values and players may strategically defend their most valuable pieces such as the King, Queen, Rook, Knight and Bishop. However, even the Pawn can be key in a game of chess and if it reaches the other side of the board can transform into a Queen which is a more powerful piece. Through chess lessons I have learned that it is strategic to keep as much material in pieces on the board as possible because the player with the most pieces has a material advantage. In evolution small adaptation such as Darwin’s discovery of how mutations to the beaks of finches can lead to an evolutionary advantage. and Students will also work in groups to photograph moss on field trips with polaroid cameras that will be incorporated into their artist books. Starting a discussion on the topic of change with a game that students are familiar with from last year can make the subject of biological adaptation of moss accessible.48
Students will be assessed with rubrics for each lesson and overall with the completion of their artist commonplace books for composition, craftsmanship and comprehension of the assignments. Students will also be expected to share their books in the last week of the unit with each other to receive feedback from their peers and to see the work of other students in the class.
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